Costa Coffee reap the tax rewards

Coffee drinkers are boycotting the Starbucks chain in the UK with ever increasing numbers.

Thankfully in business, one companies downfall is another companies blessing.

This couldn’t be more true than for rival company Costa Coffee as they publish figures saying their sales have increased over 7% in the last few months, albeit with at least some of that coming down to their custom base switching away from Starbucks.

Paying only £8.6m in tax since they opened in 1998, Starbucks’ tiny tax payment is dwarfed by Costa’s tax payment of £15m for 2011 alone. Something that coffee drinkers seem to be increasingly aware of as they vote with their feet and wallets.

Andy Harrison, the chief executive of Costa’s parent company Whitbread, said in a statement “We have been the UK’s favourite coffee shop for some time; we remain the taxman’s favourite coffee shop too”.

Costa have released outstanding figures that show a global business growth of 25.5% as they continue to successfully break into the Chinese market.

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